Technological advances have led to the use of increasingly larger and complex networks with an ever increasing number of network systems as an integral part of organizational operations. Many network systems routinely receive, process and/or store data of a sensitive and/or confidential nature. Users are often provided with access to a network via external network access points to retrieve and/or exchange data with network systems within the network. The increased use of such external network access points has in many cases rendered networks increasingly vulnerable to attacks by malicious users.
Attacks on networks are growing in frequency and sophistication. The sensitive nature of data that is routinely stored in such networks often attracts malicious users or hackers that seek to gain access to the sensitive data and/or confidential data. In some cases, malicious users seek access to networks and network systems with the intention of corrupting the network and/or network systems. Examples of mechanisms that are often used by malicious users to inflict damage on a network include, but are not limited to, viruses, worms, spiders, crawlers and Trojans.
The increasing frequency of attacks on networks has often led to an increase on the demands made on network administrators to detect, assess and respond to detected network data anomalies in a timely manner.